Groups urge halt to project

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

A dozen environmental and agricultural civic groups yesterday protested in front of the Executive Yuan in Taipei, urging the government to suspend construction of a fourth-phase expansion project at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) and to re-evaluate a transition plan for the project.

Holding signs that read: “Fourth-phase of the CTSP — a money-losing project” and “A -mosquito-breeding [empty] park,” the protesters said National Science Council Minister Cyrus Chu (朱敬一) had told the Cabinet on March 8 that the project should be re-evaluated, but the Cabinet has yet to respond.

Changhua Environmental Protection Union secretary-general Shih Yueh-ying (施月英) said that while the science park initially planned for AU Optronics Corp to occupy about 56 percent of the area, the company has since reconsidered and will not establish a plant in the park.

The supply of science park development projects has already surpassed their demand, Shih said, adding that the government should stop wasting money in this type of “bottomless money pit.”

Anti-CTSP Youth Association member Lee Wei-huang (李威寰) said the total cost of developing the fourth-phase expansion project was NT$48.96 billion (US$1.55 billion), of which NT$10.31 billion had already been spent.

“Assuming construction work takes another five years, accounting for 954 more days until completion, it means an average of NT$40.51 million will have been spent on construction each day,” Lee said. “With all this money, we could be providing a NT$35 school lunch to about 1.16 million children.”

Shih said the decision on the location of the project was bad from the beginning, because Changhua County experiences droughts, adding that land subsidence problems in the area led the risk of leading to cracks in buildings or burst pipelines.